Sewing is a widely practiced art, both for utilitarian purposes and as a recreational endeavor. In general, sewing consists of joining multiple pieces of fabric together using a needle and thread. For large items, sewing is almost always performed using a sewing machine or a serger. To ensure accuracy in sewing, it is common to temporarily fasten the pieces of fabric to be joined to each other using pins. However this can be time-consuming and imprecise as the pins cannot ensure against all movement of the pieces of fabric with respect to each other. This invention relates to a removable repositionable clamp in which multiple pieces of fabric can be held together firmly. Significantly, the clamp is configured such that the jaw portions of the clamp are not only able to pass under the presser foot of a sewing machine or serger so that the fabrics are retained firmly in place until the portions to be joined have passed under the presser foot and the seam has been formed but also that proper feed of the fabric is maintained when the clip passes over the feed dogs and under the presser foot.
Previously, superficially similar clips, generally as depicted in Iwasaki, US D697,779 S, Issued Jan. 21, 2014 and sold under the denomination “Wonder Clips”® by Clover® Mfg. have been suggested for use in connection with sewing. However these clips suffer from two deficiencies in that the seamstress cannot sew over them, and even though they can sew “close” to them, the thickness of the clamp can distort the seam as the fabric is lifted off of the throat plate of the sewing machine by the very thickness of the lower jaw of the clamp. The present invention overcomes these deficiencies. A seamstress cannot sew over the Wonder Clips® as the Wonder Clip® has a base with substantial thickness which raises the fabric above the plane of the base plate of a sewing machine as it approaches the presser foot, preventing the fabric from lying essentially flat, so the clip should not remain in place as it approaches the rear of the presser foot. If the seamstress attempts to bring the clip too close to the presser foot, due to the thickness of the clip where it engages the fabric, it will likely either be displaced upwardly or otherwise interfere with the line of stitching that the seamstress is attempting. Even if the clamp were made drastically thinner, it would still prevent the feed dogs on the sewing machine from properly gripping the fabric where it is retained in the clip as the width of the lower jaw is such that the feed dogs may not be able to grab the fabric on both sides of the needle slot to ensure proper feed under the presser foot.
On commonly encountered sewing machines and sergers, feed dogs having top surfaces covered with small penetrating points, usually pyramidal, are adapted to grip the fabric from below, pulling it under the presser foot and past the reciprocating needle without damaging the fabric. In one very common style of sewing machine called the drop feed design, the feed dogs reside in elongated slots in the base of the sewing machine and undergo a compound motion in operation, rising up through the base plate (also referred to as the stitching plate, needle plate or throat plate) of the machine and engaging the lower surface of the fabric at the beginning of one cycle. Thereafter, the feed dogs move forward in the slot pulling the fabric with them through the sewing or stitching zone until they approach the forward terminus of the slot, at which point the feed dogs begin to retract into the machine so that they no longer engage the fabric whilst another set of feed dogs raises in the slot to grasp the fabric prior to the first set releasing. Thereafter, the feed dogs move downwardly and rearwardly in the machine and then rise up near the beginning of the slot to reengage the fabric and repeat the cycle. Typically, multiple feed dogs are provided so that that there is always at least one feed dog, more preferably one pair of feed dogs, engaging the fabric and pressing it against the presser foot while pulling it forwardly through the stitching area of the sewing machine. Often machines will have three or four sets of feed dogs spaced around the needle slot with each set comprising four feed dogs in the most common designs. While many basic machines have a pair of narrowly spaced feed dogs of considerable length, say 30 mm or so, to ease formation of evenly spaced straight stitches, other machines, optimized to allow more freedom in stitch direction, may have more widely spaced but shorter feed dogs to allow for wider stitches while allowing the seamstress to more easily form stitches following a path other than straight as desired by the seamstress.
Because the jaws of the Wonder Clip® are relatively thick and wide, if the clip is close to the seam being formed, the seamstress can neither pass the clips directly under the presser foot nor allow them to pass too close to the stitching area, and accordingly, must halt the stitching process to remove the clip as it approaches the presser foot. Further, unless the clip is laterally displaced from the line of the presser foot by a considerable distance, it must often be removed or the fabric will not feed perfectly as the thickness of the Wonder Clip® is so pronounced. Even if the jaws of the Wonder Clip® were somehow made sufficiently thin to pass under the presser foot, they would interfere with ideal feeding of the fabric through the stitching zone as the Wonder Clip®'s width, which in use will normally be parallel to the direction of travel of the fabric, would interfere with the proper grip by the feed dogs on the fabric as it passes through the stitching zone under the presser foot as the feed dogs would impact upon the clip rather than gripping the fabric and urging the fabric through the stitching zone.